NCJ Number
176648
Journal
McGeorge Law Review Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Dated: Fall 1998 Pages: 1-4
Date Published
1998
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The criminal justice system is at a critical crossroads in the development and use of information and communication technologies, and decisions made during the next year will set the course for the next 20 years.
Abstract
A key issue is whether there will be an integrated approach in which all individuals who routinely work with the criminal justice system, including those from law enforcement, social services, schools, courts, prosecutors, public defenders, corrections, probation, and parole, have easy and quick access to accurate and relevant information. Technology will fundamentally change information management in the criminal justice system. Beginning with police reports completed in the field using a laptop computer and all the way through the criminal justice system to corrections, probation, and parole, information will be stored and shared electronically among all criminal justice system agencies, taking into account an agency's need to know and privacy concerns. Using interactive video communication technology, physical appearances will be replaced with electronic appearances. Further, the traditional commute to and from the office will increasingly vanish as employers and employees learn how to be equally productive in home offices as they are in office buildings. Some of the most significant technological hurdles, for example, incompatibilities between databases and communication protocols, have been resolved. The Internet and windows-based platforms have established a common ground for users. The author believes technology issues faced by the criminal justice system are not really technological; rather, the issues concern governance, accountability, responsibility, and budget resources. 3 footnotes